Who Invented Words?

Have you ever seen a puffin? With their bright beaks, orange feet and black and white coloring, these birds are very cool to look at. And we’ve gotten a lot of questions about them! In this episode, we talk with Don Lyons, an educator and avian ecologist with the Seabird Institut ... Show More

Where did the English language come from? Why do words have silent letters? Why do some people have accents? Why do some words sound similar? Answers to all of your questions about English and words with sociolinguist Erica Brozovsky, host of a PBS digital show called Otherwords. ... Show More

For today’s episode, we’re doing something a little different! We’re going to be listening to our video series, But Why Bites! (Even without the video part, they’re really cool!) Every other week over on our YouTube channel, we answer one kid question in a short and sweet little ... Show More

تولد العديد من الأسئلة من تجاربنا المؤلمة مثل: لماذا رحل؟ لماذا عوملت بهذه الطريقة؟ لماذا أنا؟ ونظل نبحث عن إجابة تخرس السؤال الذي يضج فينا، نريد أن ننجو من دوامة التفكير به.. لكنه يحاصرنا، ويعلو صوته كلما خلونا بأنفسنا. فكيف نتعامل مع هذه الأسئلة؟ 

Where did language come from? Is it possible to know without traveling back in time? And how do babies learn to speak? Plus: We’ll hear how the word “silly” has evolved over the last several hundred years. 

Have you ever noticed that when you say the same word over and over, it starts to sound funny? It’s like the word loses its meaning and just becomes weird, disconnected sounds. One of our listeners wanted to know why, and we went to linguist Shohini Battasali for the answer.  Got ... Show More

We asked you to ask US things you've always wanted to know about us. Today, we're answering your questions and addressing topics that we've been avoiding... 

Also: why do we pad our speech with so much filler language? 

I often get asked whether it's better to focus on one language and become fluent in it or to explore many languages. In this video I talk about why I don't think there's one answer to this question.